


Applin Exchange

by eisneRiegan



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Indirect Confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22240924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eisneRiegan/pseuds/eisneRiegan
Summary: Gloria's been Champion for a year.Hop's progressing quickly as Sonia's assistant.Gloria really wanted to give Hop an Applin since she helped that man at Hammerlocke out but couldn't find the right time.Hop is bad on explaining himself.
Relationships: Hop/Yuuri | Gloria
Comments: 3
Kudos: 180





	Applin Exchange

Gloria didn't really think much of it when Sordward and Shielbert told her that they have abdicated their claim to royalty and that she's the only one worthy of royalty around.

She had underestimated the power of those two, being celebrities (even though she had never seen or heard of them as she was focused on being a Pokemon Trainer).

Now, she can't go around Galar without paparazzis hounding her every move.

Being the Galarian Champion is already tough. It was fun during the first few weeks but as time goes on, it's tiring.

How did Leon even managed it for how many years he was Champion?

Maybe that's why he's so happy and lively now that he's managing Rose Battle Tower. Being the Champion, where everyone looks at you like some kind of hero or something, with a lot of expectations thrusted upon you, is kind of tiring.

And now, she's being treated like a royalty by the same people who battled against Piers and Hop back at the Energy Plant. No doubt it's Sordward and Shielbert's doing.

They kept flooding her public accounts with their praises about the curry she made during camping, and sometimes they critic her outfit for the day (hey, there are times a girl doesn't feel like putting an effort to look nice). She had deleted and deactivated most of her public accounts, leaving one private account for her and her friends. Thankfully, her friends respected her wishes to keep her account private and not share it with anyone.

But most of all, she can't go anywhere without them trailing behind her. Like as if they had put on a tracker on her.

And all this is happening on her first year as Champion.

She thought of losing on purpose on the next Champion Cup, but then that means she's letting Hop and Leon down with such weak reason.

And Hop's doing his best as Sonia's assistant.

He hasn't even done camping with her for a while.

Leon's busy with the Rose Battle Tower.

Bede doesn't want to camp with her as he's busy with preparing the new Fairy gym for the next Gym Challenge.

Marnie is busy as well with maintaining Spikemuth, and keeping Team Yell on the line.

And Gloria is just at home, under the covers of her blanket, in her pajamas, and hugging her pillow as a new morning graces Galar. Her mother had already called for her to eat breakfast but she's not in the mood to eat.

Gloria wants to hang out with her friends but they're busy.

Well, she's also busy with taking over Leon's work as Champion, but it's mostly the adults who handled things for her. Raihan, Mr. Kabu and Melony were nice enough to do things for her but sooner or later, Gloria has to learn how things are done around the internal working of the Gym Challenges.

Milo's the nicest one though, he makes sure that Gloria's not overwhelmed by things. Kept checking on her like an older brother she never had.

"Griie.."

Gloria opened her eyes when she heard that whine and turned around her bed to look at Zamazenta, who got out of its pokeball.

Looks like the legendary dog got worried when its trainer has not left their bed ten minutes after she usually get up.

Well, Zamazenta slept for how many years and only appearing recently so Gloria's allowed to sleep in for one day. That big puppy has no rights to tell her to get out of bed.

Zamazenta nuzzled her then bit the blanket to pull it off her.

"Hey! Give that back!" Gloria scolded her pokemon as it bounded away from her and ran downstairs.

Grumbling, Gloria pushed herself up from her bed and got out of it. Might as well go down and eat for a change.

She wasn't prepared to hear Hop's voice as soon as she took one step down the stairs.

"Oh hey, Zamazenta! Good morning! Why do you have a blanket? Is that your favorite blanket? You and Zacian are so alike in many ways."

Gloria had to resist the urge to run down the stairs and throw herself at Hop to hug him. She misses being with people her age.

And she misses her best friend and rival.

"That's Gloria's blanket." Gloria heard her mom say. "I guess Zamazenta forced her to get up..."

Gloria sighed. Might as well retrieve her blanket and say hello.

"I'll go upstairs to give it back."

Wait no.

Gloria had to rush going down the stairs and almost tripped over herself to prevent Hop on seeing the mess in her bedroom. Hop was startled by her as she started falling forward.

He caught her in time and Hop grinned at her.

"Hey there, sleepy head. It took Zamazenta just to get you out of bed?"

Gloria looked up at him sheepishly. "Hi..."

The two of them straightened up, with Hop helping her get back on her feet.

Gloria could hear her mother having a giggling fit near them and she shot her mother a flustered pout.

"Well, thanks to Zamazenta you're finally awake. Come have breakfast with us too, Hop."

"I wouldn't say no to that. Thank you!"

The two of them sat in the dining room, and Hop was happy to see the big fluffy pancakes Gloria's mom made while Gloria had to go up and get her pokemons to feed them too.

Breakfast in their household seems to be livelier with Hop around.

And Gloria's mom noticed how her daughter had quickly changed clothes and fixed herself up afterwards.

"Well, I hope you two enjoy your day together. Don't stay out too late, okay? Hop, look after my little girl."

"Will do, Mom!"

Gloria looked at them sharply, feeling her cheeks go red.

"What?"

"Oh, your mom said I can call her mom too. Maybe my mom would like you to call her that as well. She always wanted to have a daughter."

  
"Hey Champion, it's nice to see you today." Sonia greeted her. Gloria cheerfully waved at her as she followed Hop to his study table.

Sonia smiled at the sight in front of her as she sip on her hot chocolate drink.

It reminded her of that time when she and Leon used to do that.

If he doesn't get lost on the way of course.

She sat down at her own chair behind her table, watching the Champion and her assistant work on something since the Champion's pokedex has a lot more entries compared to his own.

At one point of the day, Sonia has to leave and check on Leon, leaving the two of them alone.

"Hey, you have an Applin, right?" Hop asked her as he leaned back on his chair. "Can I see it for a bit? I'm really curious as to how its evolution depends on what apple you feed it."

Gloria blinked at that then reached for her bag and her Rotomi to look for the pokemon in question.

"Well, isn't it kind of normal like with the eevee evolutions?" she asked him, frowning when she can't find the right box.

"Eevee is kind of understandable. Being a quadruped pokemon and all. Well, not that I'm invalidating the other pokemons. It's just... You actually have to feed Applin to evolve into either a Flapple or an Appletun. Other pokemons just needed to be exposed to a specific stone..."

Gloria shrugged at that, finally pulling out the pokeball that has the perfect IV Applin she had bred and hatched some time ago.

She wanted to give it to Hop, to help out on his research on how parentage of a pokemon affects the hatched pokemon or if it's just out of chance. Perfect IV pokemons are hard to come by after all.

And it certainly has nothing to do with whatever story is attached on giving Applins to a certain someone.

No sir, not in the least.

She really just want to give it to Hop.

It's the first perfect IV she ever got after all, out of the pokemons she had bred. Maybe there's a way to get a perfect IVs, nature and abilities scientifically and not depend on the parentage. And how your luck is looking for that day.

She just want to know for Battle Tower purposes. After battling Leon there, she's finding it hard to deal with the trainers afterwards. And losing there is not an option.

She need those Bottle Caps. For her Inteleon.

"Well, here you go." Gloria said as she let out the pokemon onto the table.

Hop stared at the Applin, who is cheerfully looking up at him.

"Wow. That is a pretty Applin." Hop said as he leaned forward.

"I know." Gloria said smugly. "She's the best one I got after biking around the Daycare in the Wild Area."

Hop scooped up the Applin, examining it while Gloria twiddled with her hair the way Sonia does as she watched her friend.

Hop's really into this job to be a pokemon professor. Which is kind of amazing.

He'd probably look good in a labcoat too, but he won't get his until Sonia approves of him. Which will take years.

They continued on their studies, with Gloria providing him some dex entries that he doesn't have on certain pokemon that has specific requirements to evolve.

Gloria had to excuse herself to make some curry for the two of them for lunch, with the best ingredients she has in her bag. They may not be able to go camping, but at least they can still eat curry together.

Maybe she can ask Sonia to let Hop out in a field study. That way, Gloria can accompany him.

Going around Galar with only her pokemons as companions is making her lonely.

Not to mention, Boltund and Thievul keeps on butting heads with each other even though she had raised them together. She guess it's still part of their nature.

"Hey Hop, lunch's ready." she called him, standing by the small dining area. Hop looked up at her, smiled cheerfully and went over to have lunch with her.

All the while, carrying the Applin in one hand.

"You really love that Applin huh." Gloria noted, bemused as they ate their lunch.

"Well, yeah. She's so pretty. It's actually quite a shame if I have to try and evolve her..." Hop trailed off, looking at the pokemon eating next to him.

"I can go out and catch a few for you." she offered.

Hop smiled at that, embarassed. "You don't really have to. I'll go out one of these days."

"Well, surely you won't mind me tagging along when you do?"

"You're that bored, huh?"

"Well...yeah. A bit. Did some travelling here and there. Went into a few dens. Going up in the Battle Tower..."

"Why not challenge the gym leaders again for fun?"

Gloria shook her head. "I'm taking a break from battling."

Hop laughed at that. "One year as Champion and you're tired of battling. Lee can't even sit still back then."

"Leon and I have different ways of handling things."

"Yeah, I've noticed. Lee wanted to make Galar's trainers to be the strongest after all."

"And I just want to live peacefully without those people hounding me. I can't enjoy battling when they're hovering. Now I know what Marnie felt with Team Yell."

After lunch, the two of them took a nap side by side, with Gloria resting her head on Hop's shoulder while Hop rested his own cheek onto the top of her head.

Gloria had wrapped her arms around his own, hugging it. She can't really sleep without hugging or holding anything.

Applin watched them nap, wondering if it's alright for her to sleep as well or if she should stand guard in case someone breaks into the lab.

Sonia found them sleeping that way when she came back and then took a photo of them, sending it to Leon to tease him about how close his brother is to the Champion.

And how they used to be like that too.

All she got is a confused reply from the former Champion, stating that Hop and Gloria are bestfriends and nothing wrong with the two of them sleeping so closely.

Sometimes, Sonia's worried for Leon's future.

Gloria stood some paces away from Hop, who is out in the grass and waiting for an Applin to show up.

It has been days since they had that conversation about Applin's evolution, and Hop's been obsessed by it.

She wonders what he'd do once he heard about Milcery and the trouble she went through just to get every form of Alcremie.

That Rainbow form really gave her a dizzying experience. She was at wits end on how to get it.

But if her experiences will guarantee a time of the day to hang out with Hop, that's fine with her.

Anything but doing things on her own.

"Aha! Got you!" Hop's triumphant voice broke into her thoughts and she looked up at him with a smile.

"Three Applins in just a few minutes." She commented, actually amazed. "It took me a couple of hours just to get mine."

Hop grinned at her. "I just got lucky today. They're everywhere. Shall we go?"

"I know a good campsite. Should we go there and have a bite to eat first?"

Hop only stared at her then laughed. "You really love to eat, huh."

"I just love making curry."

"True. I love your curry too. Man, talking about this is making me hungry. Let's go!"

"Hey wait! Let me at least get a flying taxi first!"

As soon as their taxi arrived the two of them got on, chatting cheerfully, unaware that one of Sordward and Shielbert's followers saw them and immediately sent out messages.

It's been a long time since they've seen Gloria after all. They want to know what's going on with her.

As soon as they settled down in a nice camping spot, Hop went on to put up her tent while Gloria started on making their food. Their pokemons played around, though Gloria's Inteleon is walking rapidly away from Hop's Cinderace.

Cinderace can't forget the battles he had lost against Inteleon after all. Especially their first battle, where Sobble was a such a crybaby until Gloria picked him up.

As soon as the tent is up, Hop went over to Gloria to see if he could help with anything.

"Huh, so the two of you are really here." they heard Bede say in a surprised tone. They looked up and saw the Fairy-type Gym leader standing there.

"Oh hey, Bede." Hop greeted him. "What brought you here?"

"Hm? Nothing. I was curious to what those people were being excited about so I came here to check. Seems like our elusive Champion was finally spotted by her overzealous fans."

Gloria looked at him, horrified, then at their surroundings.

There doesn't seem to be anyone around.

Then she saw Bede smirk and realized he was pulling her leg.

"That wasn't funny, Bede."

"I wasn't trying to. A few of them were making a ruckus in Hammerlocke so I came here to check."

"What were you doing in Hammerlocke?" Hop asked curiously.

"Gym leader business." Bede replied shortly, making Hop scowl at him. "Anyway, it seems like they still haven't found you. You chose a nice hiding spot."

"How did you know we were camping here?"

"This is always in your uploaded pictures. Of course I'd recognize it."

Bede joined them without waiting for an invitation. He also let out his pokemons and Inteleon now has to avoid Bede's Hatterene.

He knows what kind of damage Hatterene can do to him once he makes distressed noises for being hounded by Cinderace.

He may be all evolved now but he still has that cry baby heart that he only shows to his trainer.

The three of them talked about idle things while eating, with Bede remarking that Hop looks like he had a growth spurt in a span of a year and it annoys him.

After eating and bonding with their pokemons with toys, Bede said his goodbyes after getting an urgent call from one of his gym trainers regarding Opal.

"So, where are you off to now?" Hop asked Gloria as they helped each other take down the tent. "Home? Off to hide from those people?"

Gloria sighed at that. "A year of hiding from them is tiring."

"That's how it is being the Champion. Remember when we went to Wedgehurst to pick Lee up?"

"At least those people leave him alone when he asked them nicely. I think Shielbert sent those people after me as some sort of revenge."

"But didn't they already apologized for what they've done?"

"Yeah but did they look sincere?"

"To me, they were."

Gloria shook her head as she carefully placed the folded tent back into her bag. Hop looked at it for a moment before taking the bag from her.

"Oh wow, this is heavy." he said, surprised, as he hefted it onto one shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"I thought it was too heavy for you and turns out, it is. I'll accompany you to wherever you need to go before I return to the Lab."

"But won't Sonia need you there?"

"She sent me out for field work today, so she's probably not expecting me till sundown."

Well, she's been wanting to hang out with her friends so why not take him up on the offer? Bede was nice enough to crash into their little camping, getting her up to date with how Opal is doing recently health wise.

All that's left is for Marnie or Piers to show up and have a little chat with them.

They got on another flying taxi and went over to Wyndon. Now that there's not much tourist gathered, the line for the ferris-wheel is almost non-existent so the two of them got into it.

"You know, despite using the flying taxis, the view up in a ferris-wheel seems different." Hop commented as he looked out of the window.

All of Wyndon is in plain view and thought it looks so glum without the Gym Challenge to liven things up.

"Maybe it has something to do with the speed?" Gloria replied. "Ferris-wheels are slow after all."

"Yeah. Not to mention the wind is really something up here."

They sat there in silence, taking photos and stealing some shots from one another when they're not looking.

Sometimes, stolen shots are better than a posed shot.

"Oh, right. I have something for you. For accompanying me and helping me with researching about Applin." Hop said as he reached for his bag.

Gloria inclined her head at that questioningly. Hop smiled at her sunnily as he showed her an Applin.

That has a lime green color instead of its usual red.

She looks so pretty.

"One of the Applins I caught earlier." He explained as he handed it over to her. "I already recorded her data so she's all yours."

"Are you sure? Won't you be needing her?"

"You gave your perfect Applin to me, so I thought I'd give you something in return." Hop replied, abashed. "Hatching a perfect IV is no easy feat so when you gave her to me, I wanted to get you something too. Something special that I got by myself."

Gloria smiled at him happily, and threw herself at him for a hug, making their carriage rock slightly.

"Hey, hey... Be careful!" Hop told her, worried, as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Sorry. But this is my first shiny." She said as she hugged him tighter. "I'm just...really happy."

"Glad you liked it."

"Of course."

Several days later, Gloria was just lounging around their living room, with her pokemons out of their pokeballs, when she sat up straight as soon as her eyes caught the news headline.

"Royalty Champion and Assistant Professor, a budding romance."

And there's a picture of them in the ferris-wheel, at the exact moment when Hop handed over the shiny Applin.

How on Galar did they even managed that?

And don't they have anything else to do but nose around her private life?

Like, sure, she's a public figure now but she's still entitled to some sort of privacy.

Especially her private life.

She sent out an SOS to Melony, Raihan and Mr. Kabu to help her put down that article. Those three knows how to make people do whatever they say, especially Mr. Kabu.

And she also sent a distressed message to Milo, who then replied that he'll bring her something over to calm her nerves before facing this stupid thing.

"Oh for the love of Zamazenta..." She groaned as a call from Hop came in. Looks like he finally got wind of it.

And it looks like he's worried for her. He knew that she values her private life more than anything else. And for this stupid article about them to come out...

Hop assured her though, in a really bad way of explaining himself, that he's not thinking about that kind of thing yet. Maybe when they're older.

Gloria can hear Sonia in the background, embarrassed and frustrated at the same time on how Hop is hopeless in explaining himself.

"Grie...?" Zamazenta looked up at her, confused.


End file.
